Global Hospitals Group, a super specialty healthcare provider, is gearing up for a major expansion to set up hospitals across the country. Plans are underway for an Initial Public Offer (IPO) in the next three years. The Group had raised Rs 1,000 crore in 2008 from Indivision Capital, a private equity fund managed by Future Capital Holdings. It will also look at banks and support from the promoters of Global Hospital chain. For its next round of expansion, it has firmed up its intention to go public to support its pan India expansion which will help double the total bed strength from the current 2,000 to 4000.

The expansion will include two greenfield projects in Mumbai and Kolkata and two joint venture initiatives in New Delhi and Bhubaneshwar. The construction of the Mumbai facility is on at a cost of Rs 200 crore and is expected to open in October this year to offer transplant service among other super specialties too. This will take the total number of Global Hospitals, a unit of Ravindranath GE Medical Associates (P) Ltd, to 12. Right now it has two hospitals in Hyderabad, one each in Chennai, Ramanagaram and Vijayawada and three in Bangalore.

Efforts are on to help take off the greenfield project in Kolkata. In New Delhi and Bhubaneshwar, Global is in dialogue with potential partners for collaborative ventures. It will look at a combination of venture capital funds, internal accruals and debt through banks. However, it is also seriously looking at raising funds through an IPO within the next three years.

We are already a well entrenched player in the super specialty space. Our key expertise and facility support have resulted in successful treatment administration. The solid tertiary presence in big cities has helped us to set up hub and spoke formats at Vijayawada, Bangalore and Ramanagaram to offer primary and secondary care for critical cases too. There is public confidence and we are therefore looking at an IPO route for further funding options, Dr K Ravindranath, chairman, BGS Global Hospital, told Pharmabiz.

In Bangalore, BGS Global recently opened the Centre of Excellence for Liver & Pancreatic Disorders and Multi Organ Transplantation and Liver ICU. This makes the Global Hospitals Group the largest in this part of the world for liver transplantation along with the other two other centres in Hyderabad and Chennai. The facility here has all the super specialties including Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery & Heart Transplantation, Laparoscopic Surgery, Haematology, Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplantation, Nephrology, Urology & Kidney Transplantation apart from Neurosciences, Trauma and Orthopaedics. Presently, this facility has a total personnel strength of 900 and will increase to 1,000 by the year end.

Among the latest treatment offerings are cell therapy at Hyderabad. It will offer the same at Bangalore and Chennai in six months.

According to Dr Ravindranath, there has been an impact of the global economic slowdown on healthcare sector because of currency fluctuation and high interest rates. But for Global Hospitals with its focus on critical care and organ transplants its technology and medical expertise patient arrivals continued. Going by its niche expertise, the Group managed to attract foreign patients too for surgery and treatments for neurology and cardiology. But now with the dedicated multi-organ transplant wing and liver –pancreas expertise, it has set aside 10 per cent of beds for international patients.

The key challenges for hospital majors in this space is the shortfall of experienced and qualified team of doctors and paramedical staff, apart from rising real estate and medical equipment costs which is posing problems to contain the cost per bed, said Dr Ravindranath.